The Macbook Pro Is Losing One of Its Very Best Features

Apple announced its new Macbook Pros today. While they are thinner, lighter, and have more powerful guts, they're missing a couple things. Most notably a physical escape key, but also one of the best features that the Macbook has sported for years. A MagSafe charging port.

First introduced in 2006, MagSafe allowed chargers to connect to Macs magnetically, the logic being that if you tripped over your power cord like a doofus (or someone else did) the cable would disconnect instead of dragging your laptop to the floor. A small but vitally important feature for clumsy people and kid-havers everywhere.

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But when Apple introduced its new Macbook last year, complete with a USB Type-C charging port, MagSafe was missing. Now, the new Macbook Pros have been announced and they charge by Type-C-compatible Thunderbolt ports. MagSafe looked like it was dying before, but now it is well and truly dead.

This is not without its upsides. The new Macbook Pros have four Thunderbolt ports, any one of which can be used as charging port. What's more, other devices like Google's Pixel tablet and computer—as well as many other PCs and and even phones—are moving to Type-C charging as well. This means that you may someday, have one charger that works for both your phone and your laptop, as well as your buddy's. Well, unless your phone is an iPhone.

It's possible there's just no way to engineer a MagSafe-style charger that also works with Type-C, but whatever the case, it sure looks like the lovely era of MagSafe is over. Yes, you should be glad that you can reduce the number of chargers in your life, but just be extra careful not to trip over their cords.

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